Media Bites: Choosing a Party Leader Should Be "Un-Conventional"

Nationalization, the belief that the government should occasionally seize control of private enterprise to better serve the "public good," isn't an idea with much traction in Canadian politics these days -- despite the NDP's best efforts. Though the party may have officially ditched socialism this weekend (or at least stopped denouncing "the making of profit") one imagines future Dipper gatherings will continue to entertain Minister Flaherty with Marxian demands for the immediate transfer of energy, banking, and auto firms from private hands to "workers' control." If we learned anything from yesterday's convention, it's that it's a lot easier to take socialism out of the NDP than the NDP out of socialists.

But if Canada's political parties can still muster a vigorous debate on the pros and cons of making Chrysler a public good, no one contests that political parties themselves should remain anything but private.

Amid all the cliched outrage about "corporate politics," it's worth remembering that Canadian political parties are, in fact, literal corporations. They have hierarchical management structures, slick Bay Street offices, vast vaults of money, and armies of employees. And open memberships notwithstanding, publicly traded they ain't.

As countless partisan sinners have learned -- Senator Brazeau most recently -- membership in a Canadian party is a privilege, not a right. You pay a fee and get a card, but unlike a share of stock, the party boss reserves the right to yank it back for any misdeed, real or imagined. Decisions supposedly delegated to the membership, such as nominating parliamentary candidates, can be (and often are) vetoed by head office. There are Dairy Queens with more independence.

In this oppressive context, it's unsurprising Canadian party membership as a percentage of the population languishes around 1 per cent. The Liberals made much fuss yesterday about how Justin was elected Grit leader by the "largest turnout of any party race in Canadian history," but with only 104,552 casting a ballot, that's still a depressingly lower figure than say, the 416,000 Canadians who are fans of Doritos on Facebook.

If there's any Canadian industry crying out for nationalization, in short, it's this one. Unlike General Motors or CIBC, political parties have literally no reason to exist beyond serving the public interest. We need parties to form governments in our parliamentary system, and they provide the lifeblood of choice in elections. Joining a political party is the only way a citizen can directly elect a prime minister following an incumbent's resignation -- as Liberals did in 2003 -- and for that matter, it's the only way to elect a prime ministerial candidate. Surely these are powers too crucial to be outsourced to the private sector.

Imagine how much healthier our democracy would be after we forcibly seize the assets of the Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP and place them in the hands of a well-suited government manager -- Elections Canada. Under their neutral administration, any Canadian could join any publicly-owned party they want and stay a member as long as they desire, without having to pay any fees, demonstrate any loyalty, or pass any ideological litmus test.

Once they stop being the political equivalent of the Best Western Loyalty Club, joining a political party would be like registering to vote in a federal election -- a one-time form mailed to Ottawa without any dollar bills attached (voting without paying? Wild, I know). Harper, Justin, and Tom wouldn't judge your fitness to be a Tory, Liberal or New Democrat -- you would. After parties become public utilities, a right to party membership would become as sacred as the right to vote itself -- a right the Supreme Court says we can't even strip from convicts serving life sentences.

Sticking Elections Canada in charge would similarly ensure all future party leaders are chosen through open and accessible national elections -- not cliquey party conventions -- using the standard paper-ballot-and-church-basement system we use to elect MPs and provincial legislators. Party bosses would be picked by millions instead of thousands; MP candidates by thousands instead of dozens.

Is there a downside to nationalization? American political parties are basically run this way already, and they seem robust enough. We could still have some sort of Liberal Largess Council or Tory Trust to help fundraise and distribute cash to candidates -- but they wouldn't "run" the parties any more than the Republican and Democratic National Committees run theirs. The people would.

Naturally, some hard-core partisans might worry that allowing every yahoo to vote and run for every partisan office could lead to a breakdown of ideological consistency and message control. What if a rabid right-winger registers as an NDPer just to vote in their nomination elections and elect the worst guy? Hell, what if he runs for leader?

My guess? No one cares enough to be that psychopathic. Some US states allow anyone -- even members of the opposite party -- to vote in Democrat or Republican primaries, and there's little evidence this has affected anything. No less a psycho than Rush Limbaugh tried to get Republicans to vote for Hillary over Obama in 2008 as part of some would-be sabotage. It didn't take.

As it stands, Canada's political parties are a textbook example of the sort of crooked corporate cartel socialists originally arose to oppose: enormously rich, conspiratorially unaccountable, and corrosively corrupting of the democratic process. The era of peoples' republics and peoples' corporations may be over (even in the NDP) but people's parties? Why not?

If the track record of nationalization is any indication, the absolute worst-case scenario is incompetent state-administration drives Canada's parties into economic collapse, forcing us to start afresh.

What a shame that'd be.

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10 Little-Known Mulcair Facts

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Here are some facts you may not have known about NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. (CP)

Mulcair was Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks in Jean Charest's Liberal government in Quebec. He served in the role from 2003-2006. (CP)

Mulcair married Catherine Pinhas in 1976. She was born in France to a Turkish family of Sephardic Jewish descent. Mulcair has French citizenship through his marriage, as do the couple's two sons. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images)

Mulcair left Charest's Liberal government in Quebec after he was offered the position of Minister of Government Services in 2006, an apparent demotion from Minister of the Environment. Mulcair has said his ouster was related to his opposition to a government plan to transfer land in the Mont Orford provincial park to condo developers. (CP)

Mulcair was the first New Democrat to win a riding in Quebec during a federal election. He held the riding of Outremont during the 2008 election after first winning the seat in a 2007 by-election. Phil Edmonston was the first New Democrat to win a seat in Quebec, but his win came in a 1990 by-election. Robert Toupin was the very first to bring a Quebec seat to the NDP, but he did it in 1986 by crossing the floor. (Alamy)

Mulcair's father Harry Donnelly Mulcair was Irish-Canadian and his mother Jeanne French-Canadian. His father spoke to him in English and his mother in French -- explaining his fluency in both official languages. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Muclair has voted in past French elections, but after becoming leader of the Official Opposition he said he would not cast a ballot in the French presidential vote. (Thinkstock)

Mulcair met his future wife at a wedding when they were both teenagers. Catherine was visiting from France. They married two years later when they were both 21. (CP)

Mulcair was given the moniker in a Maclean's headline, but the new leader of the NDP has long been known for his short fuse. In 2005, he was fined $95,000 for defamatory comments he made about former PQ minister Yves Duhaime on TV. The comments included French vulgarity and an accusation that alleged influence peddling would land Duhaime in prison.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he has had his fair share of marijuana.
"Oh, yeah. I've smoked a lot of it."

The federal Liberal leader opened up to HuffPost about his experience with marijuana in August.
"Sometimes, I guess, I have gotten a buzz, but other times no. I’m not really crazy about it.”

The Opposition leader's office told HuffPost this summer that Mulcair has smoked in the past but not since he was elected to office. Mulcair was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in 1994.

Said the Tory finance minister:
"Yeah, in my teenage years... a couple of times, I have to admit: I didn’t like it."

The Liberal MP and Canada's first astronaut said he tried marijuana as a student in the 1970s in England.
"It's not my thing. I stopped because it wasn't doing anything for me."

The premier of Ontario said she smoked pot decades ago.
"I have smoked marijuana but not for the last 35 years."

Said the premier of Nova Scotia:
"Like every other person I knew back in the '70s when I went to university, some of whom are actually in this room, I would have tried it, the same as other people at that time."

Said the premier of British Columbia:
"I graduated from Burnaby South Senior Secondary in 1983 and there was a lot of that going on when I was in high school and I didn't avoid it all together."

The leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario admitted he's puffed in the past.
"I was a normal kid, I had a normal upbringing, a normal life in university. I experimented from time to time with marijuana. It’s a long time ago in the past and in the grand scheme of things."

The former prime minister of Canada told CTV News:
"The answer is: I never smoked. I never smoked anything, but there was an earlier time, years ago, when (my wife) made some brownies and they did have a strange taste."

The former prime minister admitted while running for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives that she tried weed.
"And I inhaled the smoke."

Said the former NDP leader:
"Yes, and some might say I never exhaled."

The former premier of Ontario said he experimented in his teens, but only twice.

The premier of Saskatchewan said he was an "infrequent" user back in university.
"It didn't really do anything for me, luckily, because for some, it does lead to other things."